scholarly journals Overview of the SLOPE I and II campaigns: aerosol properties retrieved with lidar and sun–sky photometer measurements

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (12) ◽  
pp. 9269-9287
Author(s):  
Jose Antonio Benavent-Oltra ◽  
Juan Andrés Casquero-Vera ◽  
Roberto Román ◽  
Hassan Lyamani ◽  
Daniel Pérez-Ramírez ◽  
...  

Abstract. The Sierra Nevada Lidar aerOsol Profiling Experiment I and II (SLOPE I and II) campaigns were intended to determine the vertical structure of aerosols by remote sensing instruments and test the various retrieval schemes for obtaining aerosol microphysical and optical properties with in situ measurements. The SLOPE I and II campaigns were developed during the summers of 2016 and 2017, respectively, combining active and passive remote sensing with in situ measurements at stations belonging to the AGORA observatory (Andalusian Global ObseRvatory of the Atmosphere) in the Granada area (Spain). In this work, we use the in situ measurements of these campaigns to evaluate aerosol properties retrieved by the GRASP code (Generalized Retrieval of Atmosphere and Surface Properties) combining lidar and sun–sky photometer measurements. We show an overview of aerosol properties retrieved by GRASP during the SLOPE I and II campaigns. In addition, we evaluate the GRASP retrievals of total aerosol volume concentration (discerning between fine and coarse modes), extinction and scattering coefficients, and for the first time we present an evaluation of the absorption coefficient. The statistical analysis of aerosol optical and microphysical properties, both column-integrated and vertically resolved, from May to July 2016 and 2017 shows a large variability in aerosol load and types. The results show a strong predominance of desert dust particles due to North African intrusions. The vertically resolved analysis denotes a decay of the atmospheric aerosols with an altitude up to 5 km a.s.l. Finally, desert dust and biomass burning events were chosen to show the high potential of GRASP to retrieve vertical profiles of aerosol properties (e.g. absorption coefficient and single scattering albedo) for different aerosol types. The aerosol properties retrieved by GRASP show good agreement with simultaneous in situ measurements (nephelometer, aethalometer, scanning mobility particle sizer, and aerodynamic particle sizer) performed at the Sierra Nevada Station (SNS) in Granada. In general, GRASP overestimates the in situ data at the SNS with a mean difference lower than 6 µm3 cm−3 for volume concentration, and 11 and 2 Mm−1 for the scattering and absorption coefficients. On the other hand, the comparison of GRASP with airborne measurements also shows an overestimation with mean absolute differences of 14 ± 10 and 1.2 ± 1.2 Mm−1 for the scattering and absorption coefficients, showing a better agreement for the absorption (scattering) coefficient with higher (lower) aerosol optical depth. The potential of GRASP shown in this study will contribute to enhancing the representativeness of the aerosol vertical distribution and provide information for satellite and global model evaluation.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jose Antonio Benavent-Oltra ◽  
Juan Andrés Casquero-Vera ◽  
Roberto Román ◽  
Hassan Lyamani ◽  
Daniel Pérez-Ramírez ◽  
...  

Abstract. The Sierra Nevada Lidar aerOsol Profiling Experiment I and II (SLOPE I and II) campaigns were intended to determine the vertical structure of the aerosol by remote sensing instruments and test the various retrieval schemes for obtaining aerosol microphysical and optical properties with in-situ measurements. These campaigns deployed a set of in-situ and remote sensing instruments at the stations include in AGORA observatory (Andalusian Global ObseRvatory of the Atmosphere) in the Granada area (Spain) along summer in 2016 and 2017. In this work, using the in-situ measurements performed at a high-altitude station, Sierra Nevada station, and airborne flights, we evaluate the retrievals of aerosol properties by GRASP code (Generalized Retrieval of Atmosphere and Surface Properties) combining lidar and sun-sky photometer measurements. Besides, we show an overview of aerosol properties retrieved by GRASP during SLOPE I and II campaigns. We evaluate the GRASP retrievals of total aerosol volume concentration (discerning between fine and coarse modes), extinction and scattering coefficients, and for the first time we present an evaluation of absorption coefficient. The statistical analysis of the aerosol optical and microphysical properties, both column-integrated and vertically-resolved, from May to July 2016 and 2017 shows a large variability in aerosol load and types. The results show a strong predominance of desert dust particles due to the North African intrusions. The vertically-resolved analysis denotes a decay of the atmospheric aerosols with altitude up to 5 km a.s.l. Finally, two events of desert dust and biomass burning were used to show the high potential of GRASP to retrieve and study the aerosol properties profiles such as absorption coefficient and single scattering albedo for different aerosol types. The aerosol properties retrieved by GRASP show good agreement with simultaneous in situ measurements performed at Sierra Nevada Station (SNS) in Granada. In general, GRASP overestimates the in situ data at SNS with a mean difference lower than 6 µm3/cm3 for volume concentration, 11 Mm−1 and 2 Mm−1 for scattering and absorption coefficient. On the other hand, the comparison of GRASP with airborne measurements also shows an overestimation with mean absolute differences of 14 ± 10 Mm−1 and 1.2 ± 1.2 Mm−1 for scattering and absorption coefficients, showing a better agreement for absorption (scattering) coefficient with higher (lower) aerosol optical depth. The potentiality of GRASP showed in this study will contribute to enhancing the representativeness of the aerosol vertical distribution and provide information for satellite and global model evaluation.


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (22) ◽  
pp. 14149-14171 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jose Antonio Benavent-Oltra ◽  
Roberto Román ◽  
Juan Andrés Casquero-Vera ◽  
Daniel Pérez-Ramírez ◽  
Hassan Lyamani ◽  
...  

Abstract. This study evaluates the potential of the GRASP algorithm (Generalized Retrieval of Aerosol and Surface Properties) to retrieve continuous day-to-night aerosol properties, both column-integrated and vertically resolved. The study is focused on the evaluation of GRASP retrievals during an intense Saharan dust event that occurred during the Sierra Nevada Lidar aerOsol Profiling Experiment I (SLOPE I) field campaign. For daytime aerosol retrievals, we combined the measurements of the ground-based lidar from EARLINET (European Aerosol Research Lidar Network) station and sun–sky photometer from AERONET (Aerosol Robotic Network), both instruments co-located in Granada (Spain). However, for night-time retrievals three different combinations of active and passive remote-sensing measurements are proposed. The first scheme (N0) uses lidar night-time measurements in combination with the interpolation of sun–sky daytime measurements. The other two schemes combine lidar night-time measurements with night-time aerosol optical depth obtained by lunar photometry either using intensive properties of the aerosol retrieved during sun–sky daytime measurements (N1) or using the Moon aureole radiance obtained by sky camera images (N2). Evaluations of the columnar aerosol properties retrieved by GRASP are done versus standard AERONET retrievals. The coherence of day-to-night evolutions of the different aerosol properties retrieved by GRASP is also studied. The extinction coefficient vertical profiles retrieved by GRASP are compared with the profiles calculated by the Raman technique at night-time with differences below 30 % for all schemes at 355, 532 and 1064 nm. Finally, the volume concentration and scattering coefficient retrieved by GRASP at 2500 m a.s.l. are evaluated by in situ measurements at this height at Sierra Nevada Station. The differences between GRASP and in situ measurements are similar for the different schemes, with differences below 30 % for both volume concentration and scattering coefficient. In general, for the scattering coefficient, the GRASP N0 and N1 show better results than the GRASP N2 schemes, while for volume concentration, GRASP N2 shows the lowest differences against in situ measurements (around 10 %) for high aerosol optical depth values.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jose Antonio Benavent-Oltra ◽  
Roberto Román ◽  
Juan Andrés Casquero-Vera ◽  
Daniel Pérez-Ramírez ◽  
Hassan Lyamani ◽  
...  

Abstract. This study evaluates the potential of GRASP algorithm (Generalized Retrieval of Aerosol and Surface Properties) to retrieve continuous day-to-night aerosol properties, both column-integrated and vertically-resolved. The study is focused on the evaluation of GRASP retrievals during an intense Saharan dust event that occurred during the Sierra Nevada Lidar aerOsol Profiling Experiment I (SLOPE I) field campaign. For daytime aerosol retrievals, we combined the measurements of the lidar ground-based from EARLINET (European Aerosol Research Lidar Network) station and sun/sky photometer from AERONET (Aerosol Robotic Network), both instruments co-located in Granada (Spain). However, for night-time retrievals three different combinations of active and passive remote sensing measurements are proposed. The first scheme (N0) uses lidar night-time measurements in combination with the interpolation of sun/sky daytime measurements. The other two schemes combine lidar night-time measurements with night-time aerosol optical depth obtained by lunar photometry either using intensive properties of the aerosol retrieved during sun/sky daytime measurements (N1) or using the moon aureole radiance obtained by sky camera images (N2). Evaluations of the columnar aerosol properties retrieved by GRASP are done versus standard AERONET retrievals. The coherence of day-to-night evolutions of the different aerosol properties retrieved by GRASP is also studied. The extinction coefficient vertical profiles retrieved by GRASP are compared with the profiles calculated by Raman technique at night-time with differences below 30% for all schemes at 355, 532 and 1064 nm. Finally, the volume concentration and scattering coefficient retrieved by GRASP at 2500 m a.s.l. are evaluated by in-situ measurements at this height at Sierra Nevada Station. The differences between GRASP and in-situ measurements are similar for the different schemes, with differences below 30 % for both volume concentration and scattering coefficient. In general, for the scattering coefficient, the GRASP N0 and N1 show better results than the GRASP N2 schemes, while for volume concentration, GRASP N2 shows the lowest differences against in-situ measurements, around 10 %, for high the aerosol optical depth values.


2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. 9289-9338 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. J. Granados-Muñoz ◽  
J. A. Bravo-Aranda ◽  
D. Baumgardner ◽  
J. L. Guerrero-Rascado ◽  
D. Pérez-Ramírez ◽  
...  

Abstract. In this work we present an analysis of mineral dust optical and microphysical properties obtained from different retrieval techniques applied to active and passive remote sensing measurements, including a comparison with simultaneous in-situ aircraft measurements. Data were collected in a field campaign performed during a mineral dust outbreak a Granada, Spain, experimental site (37.16° N, 3.61° W, 680 m a.s.l.) on the 27 June 2011. Column-integrated properties are provided by sun- and star-photometry which allows a continuous evaluation of the mineral dust optical properties during both day and night-time. Both the Linear Estimation and AERONET (Aerosol Robotic Network) inversion algorithms are applied for the retrieval of the column-integrated microphysical particle properties. In addition, vertically-resolved microphysical properties are obtained from a multi-wavelength Raman lidar system included in EARLINET (European Aerosol Research Lidar Network), by using both LIRIC (Lidar Radiometer Inversion Code) algorithm during daytime and an algorithm applied to the Raman measurements based on the regularization technique during night-time. LIRIC retrievals reveal several dust layers between 3 and 5 km a.s.l. with volume concentrations of the coarse spheroid mode up to 60 μm3 cm−3. The combined use of the regularization and LIRIC methods reveals the night-to-day evolution of the vertical structure of the mineral dust microphysical properties and offers complementary information to that from column-integrated variables retrieved from passive remote sensing. Additionally, lidar depolarization profiles and LIRIC retrieved volume concentration are compared with aircraft in-situ measurements. This study presents for the first time a comparison of both volume concentration and dust particle polarization ratios measured with in-situ and remote sensing techniques. Results for the depolarization measurements in the dust layer indicate reasonable agreement within the estimated uncertainties. The differences in the volume concentration profiles, although somewhat larger, are still within the expected uncertainties.


2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 1113-1133 ◽  
Author(s):  
María José Granados-Muñoz ◽  
Juan Antonio Bravo-Aranda ◽  
Darrel Baumgardner ◽  
Juan Luis Guerrero-Rascado ◽  
Daniel Pérez-Ramírez ◽  
...  

Abstract. In this work we present an analysis of aerosol microphysical properties during a mineral dust event taking advantage of the combination of different state-of-the-art retrieval techniques applied to active and passive remote sensing measurements and the evaluation of some of those techniques using independent data acquired from in situ aircraft measurements. Data were collected in a field campaign performed during a mineral dust outbreak at the Granada, Spain, experimental site (37.16° N, 3.61° W, 680 m a.s.l.) on 27 June 2011. Column-integrated properties are provided by sun- and star-photometry, which allows for a continuous evaluation of the mineral dust optical properties during both day and nighttime. Both the linear estimation and AERONET (Aerosol Robotic Network) inversion algorithms are applied for the retrieval of the column-integrated microphysical particle properties. In addition, vertically resolved microphysical properties are obtained from a multi-wavelength Raman lidar system included in EARLINET (European Aerosol Research Lidar Network), by using both LIRIC (Lidar Radiometer Inversion Code) algorithm during daytime and an algorithm applied to the Raman measurements based on the regularization technique during nighttime. LIRIC retrievals reveal the presence of dust layers between 3 and 5 km a.s.l. with volume concentrations of the coarse spheroid mode up to 60 µm3 cm−3. The combined use of the regularization and LIRIC methods reveals the night-to-day evolution of the vertical structure of the mineral dust microphysical properties and offers complementary information to that from column-integrated variables retrieved from passive remote sensing. Additionally, lidar depolarization profiles and LIRIC retrieved volume concentration are compared with aircraft in situ measurements. This study presents for the first time a comparison of the total volume concentration retrieved with LIRIC with independent in situ measurements, obtaining agreement within the estimated uncertainties for both methods and quite good agreement for the vertical distribution of the aerosol layers. Regarding the depolarization, the first published data set of the CAS-POL for polarization ratios is presented here and qualitatively compared with the lidar technique.


2018 ◽  
Vol 176 ◽  
pp. 08005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Tsekeri ◽  
Vassilis Amiridis ◽  
Anton Lopatin ◽  
Eleni Marinou ◽  
Eleni Giannakaki ◽  
...  

Aerosol absorption profiling is crucial for radiative transfer calculations and climate modelling. Here, we utilize the synergy of lidar with sun-photometer measurements to derive the absorption coefficient and single scattering albedo profiles during the ACTRIS-2 campaigns held in Germany, Greece and Cyprus. The remote sensing techniques are compared with in situ measurements in order to harmonize and validate the different methodologies and reduce the absorption profiling uncertainties.


2021 ◽  
pp. 105623
Author(s):  
Stefan Becker ◽  
Ramesh Prasad Sapkota ◽  
Binod Pokharel ◽  
Loknath Adhikari ◽  
Rudra Prasad Pokhrel ◽  
...  

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (9) ◽  
pp. 3095-3112 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Sawamura ◽  
D. Müller ◽  
R. M. Hoff ◽  
C. A. Hostetler ◽  
R. A. Ferrare ◽  
...  

Abstract. Retrievals of aerosol microphysical properties (effective radius, volume and surface-area concentrations) and aerosol optical properties (complex index of refraction and single-scattering albedo) were obtained from a hybrid multiwavelength lidar data set for the first time. In July 2011, in the Baltimore–Washington DC region, synergistic profiling of optical and microphysical properties of aerosols with both airborne (in situ and remote sensing) and ground-based remote sensing systems was performed during the first deployment of DISCOVER-AQ. The hybrid multiwavelength lidar data set combines ground-based elastic backscatter lidar measurements at 355 nm with airborne High-Spectral-Resolution Lidar (HSRL) measurements at 532 nm and elastic backscatter lidar measurements at 1064 nm that were obtained less than 5 km apart from each other. This was the first study in which optical and microphysical retrievals from lidar were obtained during the day and directly compared to AERONET and in situ measurements for 11 cases. Good agreement was observed between lidar and AERONET retrievals. Larger discrepancies were observed between lidar retrievals and in situ measurements obtained by the aircraft and aerosol hygroscopic effects are believed to be the main factor in such discrepancies.


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